Peace Comes After Repentance And Before Victory

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” [Judges 6.13]

The answer to the question above is found in the beginning of the same chapter, verse 1:

The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. [Judges 6.1]

Curses just don't come for no reason. But we easily forget that just like Gideon did.

Gideon asked why Israel was enslaved to the Midianites. He asked why the power was gone (where are all the miracles...?). Gideon was right to associate "power" with God's presence and favor.

I believe the Church today should ask these same questions. The Church is indeed asking questions, but, by and large, all the wrong questions!

In the current presence of Coronavirus, we should be asking, "Why is all this happening to us? And where are all the miracles our Lord and Savior Jesus demonstrated and commanded us to do too?"

Perhaps a few are asking these questions. But all should beware of the false religious answers that are already being offered! Many are suggesting various messages on patience, faith, and suffering, but how many are crying out for repentance?

Let me point out what Gideon did. Gideon offered a young goat as an offering. What kind of offering did Gideon make? Leviticus 4 defines a sin offering for a leader as a male goat. Even though Gideon did not utilize a priest and perhaps did not get the offering perfect, I believe his young goat offering symbolizes Gideon's personal repentance.

Gideon's response to his own question 'why the power was gone' was to offer what appears to be a sin offering - an acknowledgement of sin - repentance!

Once that repentance was established in Gideon personally and he found peace (Jehovah Shalom Judges 6.24), his next move was to elicit repentance at a more corporate level. Notice that he then sacrificed a bull from his father's herd (Judges 6.25-26). Again, Leviticus 4 defines a bull sacrifice as the requirement for the entire community's sin. Gideon did not get this sacrifice just right either (according to Leviticus 4), but I believe that just shows us today that it is a repentant heart that really matters.

So, Gideon's questions were posed. He obviously got it figured out and so made a personal sin offering (repented). Then Gideon proceeded to make a corporate sin offering: repentance of the people (read the story, the people at first wanted to kill Gideon, but he spoke authoritatively for God and became their leader).

The points to glean from this story so far are as follows:

Hard times and the absence of God's power indicate the need for repentance. Repentance is both individual and corporate in practice. Peace comes after repentance and before victory.

The rest of the story reveals that God's power did return to Israel following their right assessment that their hardships were because of their sin and therefore required their repentance and return to God.

Will the United States and other nations figure this out, or suffer greatly? It will depend on the presence or absence of repentance. We should all be mindful that no longer are sacrifices required, since Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice. However, the requirement for repentance has never been removed. Faith in Jesus is imperative, however, Faith in Jesus never succeeds without repentance. Here are Jesus' own words at the onset of His earthly ministry:

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” [Matthew 4.17]

Father, help us all to see that we must repent. Help us to learn to repent before it is too late. Help us to rightly discern curses (COVID-19) as a clear indication of our need to repent! Father, please dis-empower the voices of any and all who would teach otherwise and mislead Your people to false peace and complacency in these clearly cursed times!